Libya Live Blog

Libya Live Blog

Al Jazeera staff and correspondents update you on important developments in the Libya uprising.

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(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

• Timestamp: 

  5:10pm

  South African President Jacob Zuma has arrived in Tripoli.
  
  Al Jazeera's Cal Perry in Benghazi said that there was a lot of confusion around the South African president's visit to Tripoli.
  
  "We heard initially that [President's Zuma's] visit was to "find an exit strategy for Colonel Gadaffi", [but] his aides have since knocked down these reports, calling them misleading and framing this visit as more of a regional visit to discuss humanitarian concerns.
  
  "One of the issues that this visit raises is a political question ... certainly here in the eastern part of the country, or what they might call liberated Libya ... people here are fearful that if a political deal is struck, what would the cost of that political deal be and would this mean a divided Libya ... there is a concern on the ground that this could potentially happen".

• Timestamp: 

  May 16 - 11.20am

  Important Update:

  We are implementing changes to the way that we Live Blog events here at Al Jazeera. To stay up-to-date with events in Libya, follow our new Libya live blog, here. We hope you approve of the changes, more of which will be coming every day as the new system is rolled out.

• Timestamp: 

  9:41pm

  Several loud explosions shook the east of Tripoli and columns of smoke rose into the sky in many locations, residents reports from Tajura, an outlying suburb of the Libyan capital.

  Earlier one resident told AFP that two loud explosions were heard to the east. The official JANA news agency reported that NATO air raids targeted "military and civilian" sites in the city of Zuara, 120 kilometres west of Tripoli.

  The report referred to "human losses and material damage," without  providing any more details.

  Watch 42 seconds of what Libyans have seen for 42 years! - tweets @4Adam

• Timestamp: 

  9:22pm

   

  Fuel crisis takes toll on Libyans

  In an oil rich country, the car doesn't drive to the gas station, it must be pushed!  tweets @LibyaInMe

   

  

   

   

• Timestamp: 

  9:05pm

   

  Sources tell Al Jazeera Arabic that the Arab League have voted for Libyan TVs to be banned from all Arab owned satellites  - pic tweeted @4Adam

  

• Timestamp: 

  8:34pm

   

  Libya's biggest oil company, the Arab Gulf Oil Co will not resume production until the war ends, and that probably holds good for producers across the country, the firm's information director told The Associated Press on Sunday.

   

  In this dated photo, the SARV - the first ship to export oil out of Libya with the Resistance flag - left Tobruk for Italy with 600,000 barrels of oil on March 7, 2011. [image | feb17.info]

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:23pm

   

  NATO aircraft blasted an oil terminal in a key eastern city at nightfall Sunday, says Libyan TV, after Britain urged the alliance to widen its assault on areas controlled by ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

   Libya TV says the bombs hit methanol tanks at the oil port of Ras Lanouf, causing leaks. This comes as the conflict appears to have reached a stalemate, with each side claiming gains one day, only to be turned back the next. NATO officials had no immediate comment. 

   

  [image | escalatoroverthehill.wordpress.com]

   

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  7:11pm

   

  UK urges NATO to intensify Libya campaign

  NATO must expand its air campaign in Libya and begin targeting the infrastructure of leader Muammar Gaddafi's government, not just military assets that threaten civilians, Britain's armed forces chief has said.

  Al Jazeera has more.

  
  

  [image | gallo]

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:37pm

   

  The Tunisian Coast Guard rescued 222 Italy-bound African illegal migrants off the southern town of Zarzis.

  Coast Guard units rushed to the scene Saturday when the migrants, who had departed from strife-torn Libya, issued an SOS after their vessel sprang a leak.

  The Africans were transferred to a camp at Choucha, on the Tunisian-Libyan border, state news agency TAP reported Sunday, without giving further details.

  The Italian government this week gave Tunisia four modern gunboats to curb the massive influx of Tunisian illegal migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:30pm

   

  The United Nation's special envoy to Libya Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib has arrived in Tripoli to urge a ceasefire between Muammar Gaddafi's troops and rebels seeking to topple the strongman, as an anti-regime revolt entered a fourth month.

   

  Shock, Libya has turned in to an Iraq situation. We aren't good at intervening so why do we keep doing it? tweeted @ harry_fraser

   

   

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:23pm

   

  Amateur video uploaded to social media websites on Sunday purports to show Libyan rebels advancing west towards Zlitan after taking control of the western gate of the city of Misurata, known as the Al-Dafniyah Gate, reports RTV.

• Timestamp: 

  5:17pm

   

  Civilian volunteers of the rebel army clear an obstacle course during training in Benghazi May 15, 2011.[image| reuters]

  
  

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  5:13pm

  Tunisia says it has arrested an Algerian and a Libyan in possession of explosives, in the country's first arrests of  suspected members of Al-Qaeda's north African offshoot.

• Timestamp: 

  4:40pm

   

  NATO cannot bring peace & democracy to Libya from the skies. This MUST come from the people, & the people only!!!!!! - tweeted by @David_Harney

• Timestamp: 

  4:24pm

   

  Picture from yesterday's rally in solidarity with Libya in Doha - tweeted by @ehkayy

  
  

  

• Timestamp: 

  4:04pm

   

  Senior officials in the embattled government of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi have come forward to offer evidence to the International Criminal Court in its investigation of widespread murder and persecution, prosecutors said Sunday.

  Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he will file a 74-page document with nine annexes outlining allegations that the Libyan regime has systematically attacked civilians since launching a brutal crackdown on anti-government rebels in February.

  The document will ask judges to issue arrest warrants for the three Libyan leaders considered most responsible for crimes against humanity. Moreno-Ocampo has not revealed the names of the three, but Gaddafi is widely expected to be among them.

   

• Timestamp: 

  3:42pm

   

  Tunisian soldiers have prevented more than 200 troops loyal to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi from infiltrating Tunisia, the official TAP news agency reported Sunday.

  The soldiers deployed along Tunisia's border with Libya beat back at dawn on Saturday, TAP said. The Libyan troops tried to enter their north African neighbour aboard 50 4x4s, a high-ranking military source told TAP, adding that there was no combat and the Tunisian soldiers had returned to barracks.

  The pro-Gaddafi soldiers were hoping to surprise insurgents who control the Wazen-Dehiba border post around halfway along the two countries' common border, the report said.

• Timestamp: 

  3:42pm

   

  Pope Benedict called for dialogue to prevail over violence in both Libya and Syria on Sunday (May 15) denouncing bloodshed and the killing of civilians in an address in St. Peter's Square today.

  "I continue to follow with great concern the dramatic armed conflict which, in Libya, has caused a high number of victims and suffering, mostly among the civilian population. I am renewing a pressing appeal because the path of negotiation and dialogue prevails over that of violence, with the help of the international organizations that are working towards finding a solution to the crisis. I assure you, also, of my prayerful and compassionate participation in the commitments with which the local church assists the population, in particular among the blessed people in hospitals."

   

• Timestamp: 

  2:13pm

  The latest developments in Libya - tweeted by @Libyamap

  

• Timestamp: 

  2:05pm

  David Richards, the head of Britain's armed forces, has called for NATO to expand its air strikes to target Libyan government infrastructure, according to an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.

• Timestamp: 

  4:04am

  The following picture was posted by @4Adam:

  

• Timestamp: 

  4:01am

  The special United Nations envoy for Libya, Abdul Ilah al-Khatib, said in Athens on Saturday that he would be going on to Tripoli on Sunday.
  
  UN chief Ban Ki-moon had said on Wednesday he was dispatching Khatib for talks with Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi.
  
  Speaking after talks with Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas, Khatib said he thanked Greece for its support for his flight to Tripoli "tomorrow". A Greek foreign ministry source said Khatib would be flying aboard a Greek military aircraft.

• Timestamp: 

  3:40am

  NATO late on Saturday carried out air strikes in the Libyan regions of Bir Al-Ghanam, Njila and the city of Al-Azizya, southwest of the capital Tripoli, state news agency JANA reported.
  
  Citing a military source, the agency reported that "civilian and military" sites had been targetted and that the strikes had caused "human and material damage." It provided no further details.

• Timestamp: 

  3:10am

  The head of Britain's armed forces urged NATO to "up the ante" in Libya by widening its bombing campaign to include infrastructure targets, in an interview with a Sunday newspaper.
  
  General David Richards, chief of the defence staff, added that if Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in a strike on a command and control centre, that would be "within the rules" set out by the UN Security Council.
  
  "The vice is closing on Gaddafi, but we need to increase the pressure  further through more intense military action," he told the Sunday Telegraph.
  
  "We now have to tighten the vice to demonstrate to Kadhafi that the game is up and he must go."
  
  The general said he wanted NATO member states to support the targeting of  Gaddafi's regime, not just targets which pose an immediate threat to civilians,  such as tanks and artillery.

• Timestamp: 

  2:25am

  NATO said on Saturday it cannot confirm a Libyan government claim that 11 Muslim clerics were killed in an airstrike in eastern Libya but regrets "any loss of life by innocent civilians" whenever it occurs.

• Timestamp: 

  1:30am

  Greece says it will send diplomats next week to the Libyan city of Benghazi to act as liaisons with rebels, while also maintaining relations with Tripoli.

  Dimitris Droutsas, the Foreign Minister, said "Greece's role is to talk and have a dialogue with all sides in this crisis".

  He made the comments to reporters on Saturday after talks with UN envoy to Libya Abdul Ilah Khatib. Khatib, a former Jordanian foreign minister, will travel to Tripoli on Sunday aboard a Greek air force plane. It will be his seventh trip to Libya. He also met with Prime Minister George Papandreou.

  Live Blog Updates for May 15 are above:
  
  _________________________________
  
  Live Blog Updates for May 14 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  8:17pm

  In Libya, opposition leaders have been pushing ahead with their fight to be acknowledged as the legitimate government.
  
  The Transitional National Council has been meeting in Benghazi. Opposition figure Mohamed Shebani says the aim is to build a free and democratic country.
  
  Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna has the latest from the rebel stronghold:

• Timestamp: 

  6:30pm

  Mahmoud Jibril, who serves as the foreign minister of the opposition National Transitional Council (NTC), met  French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris for talks in a bid to garner further international support for the fight against Gaddafi.

  No statement was released after their talks.

• Timestamp: 

  4:19pm

   

  Sky News reports that NATO struck a government bunker underneath a guesthouse in the Libyan town of Brega.

  A Dutch engineer says he built the bunker for Col Muammar Gaddafi in Brega in 1988 and confirmed that its coordinates match those of the area Nato targeted.

  Freek Landmeter said the bunker had been designed to resist an atomic bomb and to be used as a communication hub.

  Libya's government provided details:

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  4:15pm

   

  A senior leader of Libya's rebels, Mahmud Jibril, has arrived in Paris where he met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the conflict and prospects for transition. The pair last met in early March.

  Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon welcomed Jibril on the steps of the Élysée Palace, the president's official residence. 

  Jibril, the prime minister of the rebels’ National Transitional Council, is one of the few outside powers, along with Italy, Qatar and Gambia, to have formally recognised the Council as the Libyan people’s legitimate representative.

  Jibril held his first talks at the White House on Friday, meeting with where the US made it made clear that US recognition would not be immediately forthcoming.

• Timestamp: 

  2:29pm

   

  Libyan opposition leaders meet in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi looking for ways to build a new government post Gadhafi.  The conference hopes to bring together leaders from across the country, including areas still under the control of the Libyan strongman.
  
  Mustafa Abdeljalil, the head of Libya's National Transitional Council, urged the delegates to help bring forward a new Libya - a nation that was "free and democratic and that respects human rights."

• Timestamp: 

  1:56pm

   

  I live in a place where you can't get to and kill me. I live in the hearts of millions. - Muammar Gaddafi 

• Timestamp: 

  1:42pm

   

  The head of a French military contracting company was shot and killed by an accidental discharge in the rebel headquarters of Benghazi as he argued about his team getting arrested, an internal security commander said on Friday.

  
  Four other Frenchmen are being detained in "a secret place" on suspicion of spying, rebel commander Abdel-Basat Elshaheibi told The Associated Press.

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:34pm

  

• Timestamp: 

  12:35pm

   

  The Transitional National Assembly, which controls the east of Libya said on Friday it had appointed officials to take a number of leadership positions, including defense in his efforts to form a unified management and effective.  - tweeted by @Medo8777 

• Timestamp: 

  12:30pm

   

  A Romanian military vessel monitoring the weapon embargo against Libya rescued about 150 African refugees fleeing the conflict by boat, the defence ministry said Saturday.

  African migrants among whom 10 women and 15 children were on a small civilian boat that left the Libyan harbour of Misrata on May 9 but due to engine problems, the boat was threatening to sink about a 100 marine miles north of Tripoli.

  Up to 1,200 people fleeing  Libya have died in the Mediterranean Sea - The UN Refugee Agency.

• Timestamp: 

  10:09apm

  Video shows a bombed mosque in Libya's Nalout.

• Timestamp: 

  9:25am

   

  “I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?” - Eve Merriam

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  9:12am

   

  A Libyan government spokesman described the killing 11 Muslim clerics in their sleep by a NATO airstrike in Brega as a "barbaric crime".

  The spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, says the clerics were among a large group of imams who had gathered in Brega to pray for peace in conflict-ridden Libya. 

• Timestamp: 

  8:40am

  Citizen video shows building in Abu Sita - post NATO shelling in Tripoli

  While Gaddafi's Hamza battalion lies in ruins after a NATO strike

  
  

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:32am

   

  US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon (2nd R) meets with Dr. Mahmoud Gibril (3rd L) and the delegation from the Libyan Transitional National Council in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, in this handout photograph taken and released on May 13, 2011.

  

  President Barack Obama gave his stamp of approval to Libya's anti-Gaddafi forces on Friday, bringing leaders of the rebel group to the White House where they were deemed credible and legitimate.

  Dennis Ross (R), senior director for the Central Region Directorate, and US ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz (3rd R) also attended the meeting.

  This, while people rallied after Friday prayers near the courthouse in Benghazi  [images | Reuters]

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:19am

  Video of mass graves in Libya - tweeted by @acarvin

• Timestamp: 

  7:33am

   

  

  A man holds a poster honouring the work of internationally acclaimed photojournalist and film-maker Tim Hetherington's work in Libya after his funeral at the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception on May 13, 2011 in London, England.

  Hetherington was killed in a suspected mortar attack while covering the conflict in the Libyan city of Misrata on April 20, 2011. [image | Getty]

• Timestamp: 

  7:26am

  All appears quiet on the Libyan front at the moment, but here are a couple of reports filed by our correspondents in Washington DC and Benghazi respectively on the diplomatic and other developments in the last 24 hours.

• Timestamp: 

  4:55am

  Libyan rebels said on Friday that a French ex-paratrooper they shot dead and his four compatriots were not private security contractors but were in Benghazi to sabotage the anti-Gaddafi revolution.

  The rebel National Transitional Council said:

  On the evening of 11 May, local security forces in Benghazi were instructed to arrest a group of five Frenchmen for illicit activities that jeopardised the security of Free Libya.

• Timestamp: 

  4:25am

  Four loud explosions rocked Tripoli early on Saturday as jets flew overhead, after witnesses reported two explosions in eastern Tripoli late on Friday.
  
  Smoke could be seen rising from one of the sites in eastern Tripoli, witnesses said.

• Timestamp: 

  3:20am

  The picture shows a graffiti in downtown Benghazi. It was posted by @SumayyahG:

• Timestamp: 

  3:01am

  The White House has said the United States and NATO will continue military operations in Libya as long as Muammar Gaddafi keeps attacking his people.
  
  Obama on Friday met privately Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO Secretary-General, in the Oval Office, and the White House said the two agreed that the military action would go on until Gaddafi's assault on civilians had stopped.

• Timestamp: 

  1:30am

  The US has stepped up its support of anti-Gaddafi rebels, with Obama authorising $25m in non-lethal assistance and $53m in humanitarian aid.
  
  The White House said it was looking for ways to increase US financial support to the opposition, in part through congressional legislation that would free up a portion of the more than $30bn in frozen Gaddafi regime assets in US banks so it could be used to aid the rebels.

  Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said:

  We believe that if we could access and use blocked government of Libya assets it could make a significant amount of money available to alleviate the suffering of the Libyan people.

• Timestamp: 

  12:20am

  The United States on Friday stopped short of full diplomatic recognition of Libya's rebel movement but the White House said it was a "legitimate and credible interlocutor."

  Mahmoud Jibril, the number two in the rebels' National Transitional Council, met earlier at the White House with President Barack Obama's national security advisor, Tom Donilon.

  The White House said:

  During the meeting, Mr Donilon stated that the United States views the TNC (National Transitional Council) as a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people.

• Timestamp: 

  12:01am

  Taunting NATO, Muammar Gaddafi said on Friday that he is alive despite a series of airstrikes and "in a place where you can't get to and kill me."
  
  The defiant audio recording was broadcast after the Libyan government accused NATO of killing 11 Muslim clerics with an airstrike on a disputed eastern oil town.

  Live Blog Updates for May 14 are above:

  _________________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 13 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  8:52pm

  Libyan state TV has aired an audio message from Gaddafi in which he denies reports that he's been wounded, and condemns a recent NATO attack as cowardly.

  He says he is in a place where NATO bombs cannot reach him.

• Timestamp: 

  8:45pm

  We mentioned the possible ICC arrest warrant for Gaddafi yesterday.

  Now, the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, citing ICC sources, is reporting that the International Criminal Court prosecutor will request arrest warrants for Muammar Gaddafi, his son and Libya's head of espionage on Monday.

• Timestamp: 

  8:33pm

  Libyan state TV says it will air a statement by the Libyan leader 'shortly', the Reuters news agency reports.

• Timestamp: 

  5:40pm

  But Reuters, citing Al Arabiya TV, now says a Libyan government spokesman has denied reports about Gaddafi being injured, calling them "nonsense".

  Arabiya said that a Libyan government spokesman telephoned the Dubai-based satellite channel to deny that Gaddafi had been wounded, Reuters reported.

• Timestamp: 

  5:37pm

  More on the Italian foreign minister's comments on Gaddafi - Frattini stressed that Italy has "no hard information on the current fate of Gaddafi".

  But Frattini said "international pressure has likely provoked the decision by Gaddafi to seek refuge in a safe place.''

  His comment came during a TV interview with Corriere della Sera that was posted on the newspaper's website.

  I lean toward the solution of an escape from Tripoli, not an escape from Libya,'' Frattini said. "Libya is a big country, with desert areas.'' 

• Timestamp: 

  5:30pm

  The Reuters news agency, citing Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini, reports Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has likely left the capital Tripoli and has most likely been wounded.

  
  Frattini told reporters in Tuscany today that he believed what he had been told by Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Catholic bishop in Tripoli, that "Gaddafi was most probably outside Tripoli and probably even wounded" by NATO airstrikes.

• Timestamp: 

  1:41pm

  The UN Security Council must decide how to free up and distribute Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's frozen assets. They should not be used to arm any side in the war-torn country. -  Russia

• Timestamp: 

  1:36pm

  The solution to Libya's bloody uprising must be based on political action and not only military might, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

  "The solution to the problems in Libya are political, they cannot be solved by military means alone," Stoltenberg told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Oslo.

  "We are very much supporting all efforts to find a political solution to the challenges we are facing in Libya," he added.

  Norway's government this week pledged to scale down its role in NATO-orchestrated air strikes on Libya after its current three-month commitment ends on June 24.

• Timestamp: 

  1:29pm

   

  Libya's pro-democracy fighters have taken up a new line of defence in the Western Mountains where from their high vantage point they can easily observe the movements of Muammar Gaddafi's troops on the plains far below. It has been a successful last few moves for the NATO-aided rebels who have repelled attacks on land and sea in the last few days – but things are far from over. As the pawns make their move across the desert, the movement’s leaders are meeting with world leaders to make sure that when the dust settles a new regime will see light of day. Al Jazeera's Erica Wood reports.

• Timestamp: 

  12:43pm

   

  There is concern that the fighting in Libya is blocking access to the Western mountains area, where the World Food Programme believes there are severe food shortages. - United Nations

• Timestamp: 

  12:37pm

  Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday warned against foreign intervention in Syria, calling on the Syrian opposition not to seek a repeat of the "Libya scenario". 

• Timestamp: 

  11:38am

  Video of tank destroyed in Misurata - tweeted by @hominoid555

• Timestamp: 

  11:35am

  Libyan men attend the funeral of people said to have been killed in various NATO airstikes in Tripoli. [image | AFP]

  

• Timestamp: 

  11:13am

   

  Mahmoud Jibril, the prime minister and chair of the Libyan National Transitional Council's executive board, speaking at the White House estimates at least 11,000 people have been killed in the last 12 weeks and 750,000 others have fled the country.

• Timestamp: 

  10:49am

  A Frenchman has died from a gunshot wound after he and four other French nationals were stopped at a police checkpoint in Benghazi.

  A ministry spokesman said France’s representative hoped to get more details on Friday about the circumstances of the man’s death. He had no explanation as to who the French citizens were or why they were in Benghazi.

• Timestamp: 

  10:19am

  This video from a Gaddafi loyalists phone shows Yefren city center shops completely looted. [ video | feb17.info]

   

• Timestamp: 

  10:11am

  US Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the cost of the air war in Libya for the United States is estimated at roughly $750 million.

• Timestamp: 

  8:25pm

  Mahmoud Jibril, Libyan Transitional National Council:

  Please don't forget that this whole uprising started as a peaceful legitimate process of the Libyan people trying to look for a better future. It was crushed inhumanely, and they are forced to resort to whatever they can get to defend themselves. So, I would rather not get indulgent in talking about military plans because this is not a military struggle. The nature of this, this is a peaceful revolution. 

• Timestamp: 

  7:59am

  A Libyan diplomat has been arrested near Paris. Toraia Ben Saleem is one of the 14 diplomats declared personae non grata in Paris last Friday, giving them two days to leave.

  Ben Saleem's daughter and lawyer are calling the arrest a "kidnapping." They say the police did not have an arrest warrant. They are filing a complaint in the Paris courts. 

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:17am

   

  Russia TV speculates around the reason for NATO's attack

• Timestamp: 

  5:59am

  Schematic battlefield plan of the Misrata Siege as of May 12th | tweeted by @FunGuerillaz

  

• Timestamp: 

  5:57am

   

  Italy's foreign minister says he expects the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the end of the month.

  Franco Frattini said: “from that moment on an exit from power or from the country will no longer be imaginable because after the arrest warrant is issued all the international community would have legal obligations.''

  Italy has long maintained the future of Libya cannot include Gaddafi or family members. The UN Security Council voted unanimously on February 26 to refer the Libyan crisis to the International Criminal Court.

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:37am

   

  Canadian and British warships patrolling waters off Libya beat back a boat attack on the port of Misurata hours after the city's airport fell to rebels, says NATO.

  The attack by an unspecified number of fast, small boats came as rebels celebrated following a siege by regime forces going back nearly two months.

   The boats were forced to abandon their attack and regime forces ashore covered their retreat with artillery and anti-aircraft cannon fire directed towards the allied warships - NATO. 

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:08am

  Rebel troops , seen here checking rocket launchers, near Zintan, south-west of Tripoli, call for more sophisticated weaponry to battle troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. [image: Reuters]

  

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  5:35am

  First group of police officers graduate in Benghazi. Picture tweeted by @ChangeInLibya:

  

• Timestamp: 

  5:27am

  Britain has promised to provide Libyan opposition with police gear.

• Timestamp: 

  5:20am

  The price of black market fuel had reached 100 dinars for 5 gallons (20 litres) of gas - in comparison to the government price of 3 dinar for the same amount. The government sells gas for 15 Libyan cents a litre, sources told Associated Press news agency.

• Timestamp: 

  4:01am

  Pressure is mounting on Muammar Gaddafi from within his stronghold in the Libyan capital, with increasing NATO airstrikes and worsening shortages of fuel and goods.

  An activist said o Friday that there has also been a wave of anti-government protests in several Tripoli neighborhoods this week - dissent that in the past has been met with zero tolerance and brutal force.

• Timestamp: 

  3:10am

  A Libyan opposition leader made a plea on Thursday for the United States to free up some of the billions of dollars in frozen Libyan assets, saying the Benghazi-based rebels were in a financial crisis.
  
  Mahmoud Jebril, a US-educated technocrat who has become the public face of the rebel Transitional National Council, is making the rounds in Washington seeking greater support for rebels struggling to end Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year rule.

• Timestamp: 

  2:40am

  This picture was tweeted by @ChangeInLibya:

  

• Timestamp: 

  2:10am

• Timestamp: 

  12:10am

  Mahmoud Jibril, the chief of the opposition National Transitional Council, is expected to meet Michele Flournoy, the US under secretary of defense on Friday at the Pentagon.

  Live Blog Updates for May 13 are above:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 12 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  11:05pm

  Add a stop at the Pentagon to Mahmoud Jibril's Washington DC itinerary. The head of the opposition National Transitional Council's "crisis team" will meet with Undersecretary Michele Flournoy of the Defense Department on Friday.

• Timestamp: 

  8:11pm

  YouTube user freeeeelibyan posted the following video, claiming it shows a mercenary loyal to Muammar Gaddafi "killing Libyans" as he fires an assault rifle out a window. The video was found on a mercenary after their defeat in Misurata, the description says.

  The man filming the video asks the shooter what he's doing, and the shooter responds: "Wait and you'll see."

  "Show me how you're going to do it," the cameraman says.

  The shooter then points his gun out the window.

  "Can you see him now?" the cameraman asks. "Today is the 14th, they said its liberation day, it's you or us."

  Then: "Fire! Fire"

  The video cuts, then the shooter says, "He's gone, gone." It's unclear who they're talking about, but both men ask Allah to have mercy on him.

• Timestamp: 

  8:03pm

  The French Foreign Ministry has released a statement confirming the death of a French man in Benghazi on Wednesday:

  During a police checkpoint in Benghazi last night, five nationals French was arrested.

  One of them was shot and died in the night in hospital Benghazi.

  Our representative on site demands to meet our compatriots. He remains in contact with local authorities to review their situation.

• Timestamp: 

  7:51pm

  Muammar Gaddafi was apparently able to sneak into the Rixos - the best hotel in Tripoli, where most of the foreign media resides - to make a videotaped meeting with tribal elders on Wednesday. Now, Sky News' Mark Stone speculates on how Gaddafi managed to do so without being spotted.

  Stone also relays another theory - that Gaddafi is actually staying at the Rixos. It would make sense in at least one big way: NATO would never hit a hotel full of journalists.

• Timestamp: 

  6:53pm

  Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the National Transitional Council's "crisis team," a kind of cabinet, will visit the White House on Friday afternoon with a delegation from the NTC.

  He'll meet with Tom Donilon, President Barack Obama's national security advisor, but not Obama himself. It's Jibril's first official visit to Washington DC. We mentioned earlier that he'll be meeting senior members of Congress as well.  

• Timestamp: 

  12:43pm

  At least three rockets struck the strategic rebel-held crossroads town of Ajdabiya in eastern Libya on Thursday but no casualties were reported, residents and a medic told AFP.

  The first hit a house in an eastern neighbourhood of the town shortly before 6:00 am (0400 GMT), residents said. "The rocket came through the roof of the kitchen. We were sleeping but were not injured," said Mohamed Awad, pointing to the debris littering the ground.

  A second rocket struck near a rubbish heap and a third partly destroyed two cars in the same neighbourhood. It was not possible to determine where the rockets had been fired from.

  Doctor Ahmed Al-Ignashi, head of Ajdabiya ambulance services, confirmed the  rocket attacks. "They did not cause any casualties," he said. Ajdabiya, 160km south of the rebel bastion of Benghazi, has been under rebel control for several weeks now, but there is continuing fighting with government forces who hold the oil town of Brega, 80km to the west.

  For several days, the rebels have been positioned 20mk west of Ajdabiya, while Muammer Gaddafi's forces are 20km further west.

  On Monday, six rebels were killed in heavy fighting between the two towns  and on Wednesday, a small loyalist force conducted a raid six kilometres from Ajdabiya, killing one and wounding two.

• Timestamp: 

  12:28pm

  

  The bodies of what Libyan officials say are those of civilians killed by Western forces are seen in a hospital in Tripoli on May 12. The images are taken on a guided government tour. [image: Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  12:14pm

   

  Libyan rebels, bouyed by their capture of Misurata airport, geared Thursday for an assault on the town of Zlitan that would take them another step closer to the capital Tripoli.

  Zliten is a town in the Misrata District of Libya. It is located on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea west of the Gulf of Sidra. The name is given to both the town and the whole area and is situated 160km east of the capital, Tripoli.

  The airport at Misrata, Libya's third-largest city fell to the rebels on Wednesday after long and intense fighting with troops loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, an AFP correspondent said.

   

• Timestamp: 

  12:03pm

  Libyan state television says North Korean embassy in Tripoli has been damaged by NATO air strike on sites in the city on Thursday.

  The news, which was flashed up in a caption on al-Jamahiriya TV, said the embassy suffered major damage in NATO strikes on military and civilian sites in the Libyan capital. 

  It did not say if the embassy was hit directly, or when the damage occurred.

• Timestamp: 

  11:52am

    Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council leaves 10 Downing Street in London May 12.

• Timestamp: 

  8:45am

  Four apparent NATO air strikes have rocked Tripoli as jets flew overhead, soon after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appeared on state television for the first time in almost two weeks:

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  7:42am

  Libyan officials said two people had been killed in Nato strikes and showed foreign journalists at least one body and injured at a hospital in the Libyan capital,Tripoli on Thursday, May 12.

  Staff at Al-Khadra Hospital said they had treated more than 20 people who had been wounded.

  Since NATO took over command of air strikes on March 31, its aircraft had conducted 6,091 sorties, including 2,414 strike sorties by Wednesday, May 11.

• Timestamp: 

  7:38am

  

  A man, who officials said was wounded in an air strike by coalition forces, lies on a bed at a hospital in Tripoli May 12. [Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  7:00am

  The employer of one of two American journalists being detained by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says they've been allowed a visitor for the first time after more than a month in captivity.

  James Foley was covering the conflict in Libya for the Boston-based news agency GlobalPost when he was captured April 5. Foley has been detained with Clare Morgana Gillis, a freelance journalist who wrote for The Atlantic and USA Today.

  A GlobalPost spokesman said Wednesday an intermediary visited Foley and Gillis in Tripoli and said they were in good health and being treated well. Dozens of relatives, friends and well-wishers attended a candlelight vigil Wednesday evening on the steps of Harvard University's Memorial Church.

• Timestamp: 

  2:16am

  Libya's consul in Cairo told Al Arabiya television in remarks aired on Thursday that he was quitting his post to join rebel ranks.

  "In response to the souls and blood of the martyrs of the February 17 revolution, I, Faraj Saeed al-Aribi, the Libyan consul in Cairo, declare my resignation and my joining of the February 17 revolution," al-Aribi told the television channel.
• Timestamp: 

  2:04am

  Libyan state TV showed footage of an apparently healthy Muammar Gaddafi meeting officials in a Tripoli hotel on Wednesday, ending nearly two weeks of doubt over his fate since a NATO air strike killed his son.

  Gaddafi, who had not appeared in public since the April 30 strike on his Bab al-Aziziyah compound killed his youngest son and three of his grandchildren, appeared in his trademark brown robe, dark sunglasses and black hat.

  "We tell the world: 'those are the representatives of the Libyan tribes,'" Gaddafi said as he pointed to his visitors and then named a few of them.
• Timestamp: 

  1:46am

  The leader of the Libyan rebels will visit London on Thursday to drum up more aid for their cause in resisting Muammar Gaddafi. 

  Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) will meet Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and finance minister George Osborne.

  Live Blog Updates for May 12 are above:

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  Live Blog Updates for May 11 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  8:49pm

  Iman al-Obeidi, the Libyan woman who stormed into a government hotel in Tripoli in March to tell journalists she was raped by more than a dozen regime troops, has fled to Qatar.

  Ali Zaidan, a former Libyan diplomat who now helps represent the opposition overseas, confirmed that Obeidi had flown to Doha, the Qatari capital, during a conference of rebel represenatives in the city on Wednesday.

• Timestamp: 

  8:15pm

  The first English-language radio station based in Libya is now broadcasting via website out of the eastern rebel stronghold in Benghazi,  according to the opposition National Transitional Council.

  "Tribute FM is the brainchild of a number of British Libyans who understand the importance of reaching out to the Libyan diaspora around the world as well as Libyans at home," said a statement by the NTC.

  You can listen to Tribute FM here. The station begins broadcasting at 8pm and lasts until the early morning.

• Timestamp: 

  6:47pm

  More clarification on the fight for Misurata: Mohamad Jaber, a rebel spokesman in Misurata, told Reuters that the remaining fight is for the military airbase attached to the civilian airport.

• Timestamp: 

  6:13pm

  While Libyan opposition spokesmen and some rebels on the ground in Misurata are saying the airport (including its military annex) have been completely taken from Gaddafi forces, New York Times reporter CJ Chivers writes in his latest dispatch that some pockets of fighting remain.

  A rebel military spokesman also claimed that rebels had taken Zlitan, around 50 kilometres west of Misurata, but we are waiting for more information to confirm that report.

• Timestamp: 

  5:38pm

  Members of the Armed Services Committee in the US House of Representatives have passed a measure asking the Defense Department to provide documents on communications between the department and the White House ahead of the military intervention in Libya.

  Some US lawmakers have complained that President Barack Obama didn't coordinate closely enough with Congress before authorizing the action. In the United States, only Congress can authorize war, but presidents have historically launched more limited actions without seeking approval. 

• Timestamp: 

  2:15pm

  Libyan rebels captured the airport in the western city of Misurata after fierce fighting with Muammar Gaddafi's forces on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.

  The rebels were in full control of the airport, with hundreds celebrating in the streets, the correspondent said.

• Timestamp: 

  1:21pm

  Muammar Gaddafi has until the end of May to agree his exile before an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court is issued, the AFP news agency reported Franco Frattini, the Italian Foreign Minister, as saying.

  "There are countries that in recent weeks have indicated... a willingness to welcome him," Frattini said in an interview with RAI public radio, AFP reported.

  "It's clear that if there is an international arrest warrant it would be more difficult to find an arrangement for the colonel and his family," Frattini said. "This will happen by the end of May," he added.

• Timestamp: 

  12:09pm

  The following images, dated 08 May 2011 and released by the British Ministry of Defence on 10 May 2011, shows post strike battle damage assessment (BDA) of a building near Misurata which was used by Gaddafi forces to attack the city.

  British Royal Airforce (RAF) Tornados were ordered to destroy only the top two floors of the building and did exactly that, in an attack that demonstrated great levels of precision.

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  [Images by EPA]

• Timestamp: 

  11:43am

  UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he had urged Libya's prime minister - Baghdadi Mahmudi - to immediately stop attacks on civilians.

  "I told him the Libyan authorities must stop attacking civilians, I said there must be an immediate verifiable ceasefire negotiations towards the peaceful resolution of the conflict and unimpeded access to humanitarian workers," Ban told journalists.

  "The prime minister agreed to receive my envoy Mr Al Khatib and I have instructed him to travel to Tripoli as soon as possible again."

• Timestamp: 

  11:13am

  Gaddafi is a legitimate target if he is inside a military installation, Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said in an interview published by Il Messaggero daily.

  Military targets are not identified and hit based on who might or might not be inside.

  If, for example, it's a place from which orders are being issued to strike against civilians then a raid is legitimate.

• Timestamp: 

  10:48am

  Explosions rocked eastern Tripoli for almost an hour on Wednesday morning as jets flew overhead, a witness told the AFP news agency.

  The explosions began about 7:30 am (0530 GMT) and continued sporadically until 8:15 am (0615 GMT), according to the witness.

• Timestamp: 

  10:27am

  The AFP news agency reports that Mahmoud Jibril, foreign affairs chief for the Libyan National Transitional Council, will meet with key US lawmakers on the Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing conflict in Libya, US Senator John Kerry said in a statement.

• Timestamp: 

  10:08am

  The European Union plans to open an office in the rebel-held Libyan city of Benghazi to facilitate assistance to the rebel council based there, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

  "I intend to open an office in Benghazi so that we can move forward on the support we've discussed to the people... to support civil society, to support the Interim Transitional National Council."

• Timestamp: 

  8:25am

  Gazprom Neft, Russia's No.5 crude producer, says it still hopes to return to Libya where its deal to buy a stake in the Elephant oil project from Italy's Eni was halted by the ongoing civil war, Reuters reported.

  "We still hope that, when the situation in Libya stabilises, we will return to the Elephant project ... We sit and wait, we had great plans for Libya," he said.

• Timestamp: 

  7:41am

  Libyan rebels gain ground in Misurata and NATO announces the start of a second phase of its military operation aimed at command centers of the Gaddafi regime.

• Timestamp: 

  4:08am

  NATO's Brigadier General Claudio Gabellini spoke to reporters via videolink from the operation's headquarters in Naples, Italy:

  All NATO targets are military targets, which means that the targets we've been hitting, and it happened also last night in Tripoli, are command and control bunkers. NATO is not targeting individuals.

• Timestamp: 

  2:52am

  A Libyan rebel fighter mans his post before the front line outside the Libyan eastern city Ajdabiya as fighting between rebel forces and those loyal to Gaddafi continues.

  

• Timestamp: 

  1:28am

  First shipment of non-lethal US aid for Libyan rebels arrives in Benghazi. (AP)

• Timestamp: 

  1:00am

  Libyan government officials on Tuesday held a ceremony in Tripoli, in which they released around 150 men who they said were detained rebels.

  Video shot by AP Television on Tuesday, under the supervision of the Libyan Government, showed a ceremony at the "Scouts Theatre" in Tripoli where the men were apparently handed over to tribal leaders.

  The officials said the handover was a gesture to encourage other rebels to give themselves up to government forces or tribes leaders.

• Live Blog Updates for May 11 are above:

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  Live Blog Updates for May 10 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  10:53pm

  Mahmoud Jibril, who serves as a kind of chief of staff for the Libyan opposition in his role as head of the "crisis team," will visit the US capital on Wednesday to meet with legislators there, Senator John Kerry said on Tuesday. 

  "The Foreign Relations Committee and the American people are eager to learn more about the opposition movement in Libya and Mahmud Jibril is well positioned to answer our questions," he said in a statement.

  The two will make a public appearance at 3:30pm, local time.

• Timestamp: 

  2:05pm

  Norway has refused asylum to an Ukrainian ex-nurse of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, a tabloid website said.

  The newspaper Verdens Gang quoted several unnamed sources as saying 38-year-old Galyna Kolotnytska, who has been described as a "voluptuous blonde" by diplomatic cables, was still in Norway despite the rejection of her asylum claim, the AFP news agency reported.

• Timestamp: 

  2:00pm

  West Tripoli rebel fighters hoist the independence flag at Meaitiga airbase in Tripoli, and NATO bombards new sites, including Aziziya compound, Al Jazeera reports.

• Timestamp: 

  11:36am

  The United Nations refugee agency has appealed to European countries to step up efforts to rescue people fleeing Libya in overloaded and unseaworthy boats.

  "Any boat that is leaving Libya should be considered, at first glance, as a boat in need of assistance," Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva on Tuesday.

• Timestamp: 

  9:41am

  NATO warplanes launched a new round of airstrikes in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, witnesses said.

  They told Al Jazeera the attacks targeted several sites, including Muammar Gaddafi's compound.

  Monica Villamizar reports.

• Timestamp: 

  9:19am

  Trabulsia, a resident of Tripoli, spoke to Al Jazeera about NATO's airstrike on the capital early on Tuesday:

  It started off at the [Libyan state] TV station.. After that, about 2 and a half hours ago there was six big hits, two were at the compound where Colonel Gaddafi stays and the other four were at an intelligence building in Zawiyyah Street. First it was a bombard from the air from the NATO airplanes and the others were rockets where you can hear them very very loudly. After you hear the rocket you hear a huge explosion and even some of the civillians reported the reflection of those bombardments and the sounds were very very heavy and there was smoke reported after every strike. 

• Timestamp: 

  7:37am

  NATO has been bombing pro-Gaddafi forces on an almost daily basis but they've been unable to stop the shelling of rebel-held centres in east and west Libya. Neither side appears to be making any headway.

  Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Ajdabiya.

• Timestamp: 

  3:55am

  Jets carried out eight strikes in roughly three hours in an unusually heavy bombardment of Tripoli, which is usually hit by at most two or three strikes at a time.

  Four explosions rocked the Libyan capital shortly after 2:00 am (0000 GMT) on Tuesday, shaking the windows of a hotel housing journalists.

  They were quickly followed by two more blasts. Sirens and shouts could be heard in the distance following the air strikes, as sporadic shots from assault rifles and heavier weapons rang out and jets continued to overfly the city.

• Timestamp: 

  3:26am

  Delegates from 25 Libyan councils have declared their support for the Transitional National Council, Libya's opposition party.

  The leaders who were elected under Muammar Gaddafi's rule have been meeting in the United Arab Emirates, marking the first time delegates from the western and southern regions including tribal figures have met to discuss Libya's future.

  Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh reports from the meeting.

• Timestamp: 

  2:43am

  Jets screamed in low over Tripoli early on Tuesday, carrying out a series of strikes in quick succession, after witnesses reported two others near state media offices a few hours before (AFP).

• Timestamp: 

  2:26am

  Libyan officials took foreign journalists to see what they said was the result of a second NATO strike in just over a week on a government building housing the high commission for children.

  The old colonial building, situated in Tripoli's Dahmani neighbourhood, was completely destroyed but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

  The officials said the NATO strike occurred on Monday night and involved a missile.

  Two telecommunications towers are sited 100 metres (330 ft) and 700 metres (2,300 ft) from the building, which had been damaged in what Libyan officials said was the previous strike on April 30. Neither of the towers appeared to have been damaged.

• Timestamp: 

  1:02am

  Two explosions rocked Tripoli as jets flew overhead, witnesses said, with smoke rising from the site near the offices of Libyan television and state news agency JANA - AFP

• Timestamp: 

  12:25am

  A Libyan opposition newspaper says rebels were leading an uprising in the suburbs of Tripoli after being supplied with light weapons by defecting security service officers.

  The Libyan government denied the report. A Reuters reporter said he could hear no gunfire and was unable to verify the report, posted on the website of the opposition newspaper Brnieq.

  Brnieq quoted witnesses who said a full-scale uprising against  Gaddafi was taking place in the suburbs of Tripoli. A government official in Tripoli denied the report. "It's peaceful out there," he said.

• Live Blog Updates for May 10 are above:

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  Live Blog Updates for May 9 are available here.